20 years later
by IzZbIzZy
Summary: An idea of what life might be like a little while after 'peace' was brought to universe.
1. Chapter 1

D'Argo Sun-Crichton woke up with the familiar feeling that his head was twice the size of his body, and that his whole stomach was clutching desperately to his intestines, just stay inside. He sat up and opened his eyes. No difference. He closed and opened them three times before it occurred to him it was dark, not that he had gone blind.

He reached upwards and felt the ceiling, barely four feet off the floor, and reached to find three walls on equally close proximity, but not a fourth.

"Hello?" Although his father had taught him never to call out into a dark empty room not knowing what was out there, he was too like his father to listen. His voice echoed back at him so he rearranged onto all fours and began to crawl towards the fourth wall, keeping one hand in front of him to guide the way.

"hellooo." He murmured to himself, another habit he had picked up from his father as the passage stretched on for metre after metre.

After a thirty seconds of crawling, he saw a glimmer of light, and the silhouette of a grate, a long way in front of him. He scrambled towards it, the churning in his stomach returning with the exercise until he reached the bars to peer out.

The light was dim and coming from what looked like a staircase in front of him; stone walls and candle light. He was probably still on Asci.

"Hello?" he asked again, feeling the bars to see how secure they were. They were very. "oh frell."

A crunching noise made him jump and tense as the light grew larger with a door opening, and heavy footprints walked down the steps.

"Awake? Thought you never would be. D'Argo tried desperately to make out the face of the (man? Creature?) in front of him, but the dim candle blinded him as it approached and lit the way for the visitor to get out a red stick, which he proceeded to slam into the outside wall of D'Argo's cell, producing a creaking noise that sent the bars into the floor.

D'Argo thought for a thousandth of a second, and then darted between the dark figure's legs and towards the steps. He legged it up them, bursting through a heavy wooden door and into a brightly lit room, filled with men in large black armour suits; all with truncheons and pulse pistols in their hands.

"Oh dren." He felt a sickening crack as a truncheon hit him on the head from behind, followed by an explosion of pain and sinking feeling of darkness.

He awoke to the sight of a man in spectacles, looking down at him from a great height, that turned out to be the height of his legs, as he stood above D'Argo lying in a chair.

"Well hello there."

The man didn't seem to address D'Argo, so much as the general room, which D'Argo could see was crampt and full to the brim with bottles, needles, and metal. D'Argo could feel himself gulp as he glanced at the man who was now standing at a table, his back to D'Argo and his hands working away, picking up glass vials and tweezers and equipment.

He tried to move, but felt resistance from the shackles that tied his arms, legs and neck to the chair.

"Erm, hi, look, I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding, I'm not even from this planet, you know? I was just visiting on my way through and I, Oh wow, that's a _big _needle." D'Argo winced as he felt the pinch of it going in, and a cool rush as the liquid went into his blood. "What the hell?"

The man began humming and returned to his work.

"Hey! Answer me goddamit, who the hell are you? Let me the frell out of here! _What _did you just inject into me?"

The man finished what he was doing and placed a stool next to the chair D'Argo lay in. His face showed he was old, but his eyes were bright and crystal blue, almost white. He smiled slowly and D'Argo saw he had no teeth.

"I'm a collector." He hissed, leaning in to stare at D'Argo and placing his cool hand on D'Argo's forehead, stroking it gently across the side of his face. "And you are a very rare find indeed..."

He stood up again and picked up another syringe, this one empty. He leaned in once more and drew out a thimbleful of D'argo's blood, ignoring the man's struggles and obscenities.

"If I'm right..." he hummed to himself, a sickening smile spreading across his face, "then you will be a wonderful addition to my collection, especially since I found the new girl. My how lucky I am..." He placed the blood on a piece of equipment that hummed a little and then lit up bright blue.

The toothless man clapped his hands together and smiled wider than before.

"Oh I am going to have such a wonderful sleep tonight. And so are you." He winked, "feeling drowsy?" But D'Argo could barely hear him as he fell backwards, falling into his head as a feeling of darkness consumed him.

He woke up in a cage. He could see all four walls, made with bars as thick as his fist, as he sat on a stone floor. In front of him was another stone staircase, and a man in an armour suit stood at the top, glaring down at him, D'Argo assumed it was a glare behind the visor, anyway.

To his left and right were two empty cages, identical to his.

He was feeling distinctly tired, and the blurred memories of the night before seemed to give him no clue as to why his was here. He had kissed a pretty girl, and drank a lot of a drink that she had called Ratchet Ray.

"Oi, you! How's about you tell me what the frell is going on!" he yelled, glancing around himself to see if there was anything he could use to help him out.

"Collection pieces should learn to shut up." Was the stoney reply. "Take some advice from your neighbour, she's been here long enough to know."

D'Argo glanced to his right as he saw a shadow in the cage to his right move, and he realised it was a small figure. He leaned over to the adjacent bars and beckoned.

"Hey, you, who are you? You know how to get out of here?" The shadow didn't move or make a sound.

He was Asci, he was pretty sure of that, passing through to have a drink and meet a few people. The one bar in the entire of the town they had gone to had been virtually empty, so drinks were cheap, and the whole crew had recently gotten a large thankyou donation.

Of course, D'Argo had found himself kidnapped before, but no one here even knew who he was, and he hadn't visited it before, so why anyone would want to lock him up was beyond him. Unless he got more drunk than he thought he had the night before and had _really _ticked someone off.

A clatter from above disturbed him as a second suited man walked down the steps with two bowls, one of which he placed in the not-so-empty cage to D'Argo's right, the other of which he placed at the front edge of D'Argo's.

It was then that D'Argo realised he had never been so hungry in his life. He leapt on the and drank it as fast as he could, completely unaware until his last gulp that it was the most horrendous gruel paste he had tasted in a long time. Certainly not the worst food he had ever eaten, but since his father had become an ambassador, and had gotten a decent income, D'Argo had gotten used to having regular decent meals.

He put the bowl down and turned to his right as a shape slipped out of the shadows and towards the bowl. He was surprised to see it was a girl. A peacekeeper girl in fact, that took the bowl and drank it, keeping her eyes fixed on D'Argo the entire time she ate.

"Hi." He whispered, careful not to move too quickly towards or away from the girl that looked like a rabbit in headlights. "I'm D'Argo, what's your name?" The girl frowned slightly, as though in confusion, and then slowly spoke.

"Hannah." She said quietly, her voice cracked through misuse.

"Do you know a way out of here?" The girl looked at him in confusion again and bit her lip, glancing up at the men at the top of the staircase. D'Argo repeated the question and Hannah slowly shook her head.

"looks like it's up to me then." He said, patting himself down to see if any of his extras were still in his pockets. He grinned a little to himself as he found his flasher, hidden in one of his pockets that was particularly difficult to find.

"Guard!" he shouted, "hey, guard! I'm talking to you, you big pile of meaningless dren!" The guard walked slowly down a few steps but said nothing. "What? Scared of a man in a cage? God, you peacekeepers are all the same, don't know an insult when it's thrown on your face! No peace to keep so you just act as petty thieves and thugs around the universe! I thought your species was supposed to be superior." The man strode down the rest of the steps and stopped at the bars, watching D'Argo for a moment before punching him once in the nose.

D'Argo reeled back a little and realised he had had one too many hits on the head today to make this plan a good one, but he was in it now.

"That's all you got? Sitting there with your visor between me and my ability to punch you back!" The peacekeeper put up his visor, smiled, and punched D'Argo again.

D'Argo dropped the flasher and closed his eyes, hoping the girl would do the same, and listened as the peacekeeper cried out and fell to the floor.

He opened his eyes to see the guard had stumbled back, fallen over and knocked himself unconscious, his red stick key on the belt, about a foot away from D'Argo's reaching distance.

"Oh for heavens – hey, Hannah, could you do me a favour, could you just try and reach that please?" He mimed it for communications sake and watched as the girl reached, half a foot away from the belt. "Okay then. Things to use, things to use."

He looked around the cage and saw some pebbles, which he threw at the guard, without a clue as to how it could possibly help him. Then he reached out with his leg and kicked the man, who flinched, but didn't move.

He looked down and saw his bowl and grabbed both it and the one in the cage next door. He grabbed another 2 pebbles and began to hit one of them into the wood of the bowl, using the other as a hammer, until it was halfway indented into it. Then he took the other bowl and hit the pebble with it, until the second bowl began to indent on the pebble, and the two bowls stuck.

He leaned as far as he could and reached for the stick, hitting it with the bowls until it moved a little, and then a lot.

"Ha ha!" He yelled as the red stick fell from the belt and D'Argo was able to drag it towards him. He picked it up and showed it to the girl, a grin on his face that was short lived when he realised slamming it against the bars did nothing at all. The girl watched as he hit every part of his cell, confusion filling his expression so that he didn't notice Hannah reach out to pick up his bowls, lean out and drag a purple stick towards her. He heard as the bars scraped downwards and she nervously stepped out, touching it against D'Argo's wall so that he could do the same.

"Wow, cheers." He said, and walked towards the steps. He looked back to see the girl wasn't following him. "come on then, let's get out of here!" but her eyes were wide in terror, and when D'Argo reached out to grab her had she flinched back. He paused for a moment and looked at her wide eyes. "How long have you been down here?" He whispered.

At that moment he heard a crashing as the door above them burst open, and jack pushed his way through.

"Mum is so pissed at you D'Argo!" he yelled, walking down the steps. "Seriously, there was a twitch of the hand towards the pulse pistol when I told her where you were."

"No!" D'Argo glared as Jack tried to pull him up the stairs, "I was escaping just fine on my own!"

"Yeah, it looks like it."

"Seriously! I had everything under control, don't bust me out at the last second, you haven't recued me!"

"A little thanks for your saviour would be nice."

"Oh for hezmana's sake, I swear to god if you tell mum and dad this was you helping me out of a situation I can't handle-"

"Who's the broad?" D'Argo glanced back at the girl, still wide eyed with fear, staring at the two of them.

"Her name's Hannah, I have no idea who she is."

"Well let's take her back and find out." He reached out and grabbed her arm, trying to pull her towards him.

Her piercing scream made him release his grip and stagger backwards.

"Jeez, what the frell?" D'Argo heard shouts above them.

"We have to go, come on D'Argo!"

D'Argo looked back at the girl, frozen where she was, her hands clasped at her sides. "Just follow us, okay? It's going to be okay, I promise, you're going to be fine." He held out his hand, ignoring the yells of his brother. Slowly she reached out and took it, and as soon as her palm touched his, he dragged her up the steps and into a brightly lit guard room.

He pulled her under a table as shots were fired around their heads. Jack pulled out a weathered pulse pistol and shot it a few times, yelling as he did so. The return shots were fewer, and after a few more yells and shots from jack, they stopped all together.

They ran the length of the room through an open door in the back and burst through into the open, where more fire filled the dry air around them.

"Where's the transport pod?" D'Argo yelled above the noise as they ran and ducked through the area.

"Bout half a mile south."

"Half a mile? What kind of a recue is this?" A shot hit three inches from D'Argo as he said this, and he looked back to see the girl had completely shut her eyes, and was purely running wherever he led her. "did you bring another pistol?" Jack gave a slightly sheepish grin and shrugged.

"I thought you'd just got caught up in a bar fight or something." They legged it a little further and threw themselves behind a wall. "Hey, how was I supposed to know you'd been kidnapped by someone who apparently has the entire planet on beck and call to shoot up anyone that escapes."

"Whatever Jack. Last leg it to the pod on three?" Jack nodded.

"one...two...three!" D'rgo pulled himself and Hannah out from protection and they ran towards the bright shape of the pod a way in front of them. They left the courtyard of walls and bricks and ran between some huts and houses until they reached an open and barren wasteland, where they ran to and fro to avoid the fire that followed them, but distinctly less than before.

They made it to the pod as a group of men in peacekeeper armour suits did. D'Argo clambored in through the door.

"You keep 'em out, I'll drive!" He let go of the arm behind him and threw himself onto the controls, flicking switches and pulling at things until he felt the ship rumble and lift. He heard the scream of a man as he was pushed out of the pod just as it lifted off the ground, and smelt the familiar stench of oil and ship as they lifted into the atmosphere, a few jolts each time a pistol shot hit them.

He could see the shape of Moya on their sensors and followed it, landing in the bay gently and perfectly, as was easy to do when no longer under fire.

They all tumbled out and D'Argo immediately began to pace towards his room.

"Tell pilot we need to starburst, I don't know whether or not that guy has ships." He strode into a corridor where he was met by the most terrifying site in the universe.

Aeryn had not aged a day for as long as D'Argo could remember, she stood now, all in black, her pulse pistol sitting on her hip, and her hand twitching slightly, as though she would love to pull it out and shoot at least one of her sons.

"_Where _the _frell _have you been?"


	2. Chapter 2

Jack put his head on his hand and watched as Jared put a bandage over the girl's right arm and gave her a cup of water. The girl was strange looking; Jack could actually make out her features now the girl had cleaned up. She had a sharpness to her face that Jack couldn't quite put his finger on. Her cheeks were high and her lips looked as though they were always thoughtful, her hair was a mousy brown, but her body. God her body was something else.

D'Argo broke Jack's musings as he slapped him on the shoulder.

"Don't perve."

"I wasn't perving."

"Don't perve."

Jack chose to ignore his brother as they both stood and watched her stand up and walk towards them. She didn't smile, jack hadn't seen her do so at all, she just looked at them with slightly empty green eyes.

"Hi, I'm Jack." He said, shoving out his hand in front of her. It was a classic greeting his father always used, and people in the universe almost never understood what it meant. To his surprise the girl took his hand and shook it gently, not taking her eyes of his face. The girl was really unnerving.

"So, you're Hannah, huh?" She nodded slowly and held her hand out to D'Argo, who shook it. Then a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.

"So how come you ended up in that dump then? Whatever it was, collector did you say little D?"

"Yeah, something like that." The girl looked at them, her eyebrows frowning a little.

"Well where are you from?"

"I don't understand." She whispered, looking at the ground as though afraid they would be angry.

"Don't understand what?"

D'Argo snapped his fingers in the annoying way he did when he realised something.

"Translator microbes!"

"Don't be daft, who the hell doesn't have translator microbes?"

"Pilot, can you bring one of the DRDs up to tier two please, we need some translator microbes."

"Translator microbes? I'll send one up to you as soon as one becomes available."

"As soon as - oh whatever. Asap please, Pilot." D'Argo got no response.

"Okay then, let's just start off with some basics then, you're on Moya." Jack began, pointing to the walls around him, "A leviathan. _Moya." _He gave her a thumbs up, "It's a living ship. Pretty cool, huh?"

"A living ship?" She looked at the ceiling in what could have been wonder, but the expression on her face had such a darkness behind it he could barely tell.

"Yeah, that's right, and she's called Moya. We're in... God where are we at the moment?"

"Somewhere near Thurlis I think, we're meeting Dad here in a day or so. Umm, do you know Thurlis? _Thurlis?" _She shook her head slowly and jumped back a space as a DRD whizzed round the corner with a familiar whirring sound.

It darted over to the girl's foot and injected her with microbes. She screamed and leapt back, falling onto a tray and sending bits and pieces flying.

"It's okay, calm down! Give it a minute." D'Argo rushed towards her and helped her up, holding onto her arm to stop her from shaking herself to the ground. Jack looked at the things he should probably pick up, and left them where they were.

"Hi... can you understand me now?" She looked at him and nodded.

"That's weird." She said, and pulled away from D'Argo's grip.

"So, where are you from?" She bit her lip and looked at the door.

"I'm hungry, do you have anything I can eat?"

"If you're hungry enough, then yes, because you'll have to be starving to put enough sauce on the food cubes we have. Some shortage in the food industry, bla, bla, bla, it's all gone to pot since the main powers virtually shut down and farming and shipping has all gone to hell in a big black prowler etc etc." Jack began to walk as he talked and liked the fact that both the girl and his brother automatically followed him.

"It's all very fascinating in theory," D'Argo continued, "If you can actually do anything about it, but then of course we can't. Too young, too immature, I forget the reasoning, but apparently the ideal is not to get drunk every other weekend and pull girls... no matter how stunning they are."

"Not that we're not training. Mum's got us on some stupid schedule these days, apparently in her day 'the weakest of drannits would be able to keep up with her schedule, but we can barely manage to stay alive.'"

"But we try."

"Yeah, we try."

Hannah walked alongside them, staring at the walls as though they were made of gold, touching them every so often, as though to see what it felt like to be inside a ship that had total power over you.

They reached the cantine in minutes and Jack began to look through the cupboards to see if he could find anything that resembled food. He found a few food cubes and a couple of crackers that for some reason his parents refused to eat and laid them on the table.

"Blue and brown, my favourite colours!"

"They taste the same, but you can pretend they're something else if you close your eyes and, you know, completely ignore the taste in your mouth."

Jack picked up his own and swallowed it whole, realising as he did so that he had just eaten his dinner four hours early.

"Dammit." He muttered and watched as the girl picked up a blue cube and popped it into her mouth. Jack was about to apologise when a grin spread across her face. "Is it okay?"

"It's delicious!" she put her hand over her smile and closed her eyes.

"Wow, what did they feed you down there?"

"It was worse than this," D'Argo picked up his own dinner and put it back in the cupboard. The forward thinking Drak.

"So, what does it taste like?" He asked as the girl put another blue cube into her mouth.

"Blueberry bubblegum." She whispered, chewing and swallowing with the table manners of someone that had not eaten with others in a long time.

"Uh...huh." The ship shook and Jack tumbled to his right, a familiar sickening feeling rising up.

"Pilot, please say we hit something because of your inept driving." He said into his com, holding onto the table in case of another jolt.

"Hardly, it's the Darvins again. They want to speak to Crichton."

"Did you tell them he's not _here?_"

"Several times." Jack glanced at D'Argo.

"Have they met him before?" There was a pause as Pilot realised what Jack was thinking, but reluctantly he spoke.

"No."

"Right then!" jack leapt up just the ship shuddered again, throwing him towards the door, which he proceeded to stumble through.

"Jack?"

"Yes mum?"

"Do it better this time, I don't want to be blown to pieces."

"Yes mum." He legged it to the deck, D'Argo and Hannah running behind him all the way to the main bridge.

"On screen Spock!" Jack had barely stood at the steering rod when the screen flickered up with a face so ugly it made his head hurt. With eyes as small as its nose, and a wide mouth that occupied the rest of its head, the Darvins had risen out of the muck of terror and become one of the seven species that Jack's father had written on the back of his notebook.

"Hello, I'm John Crichton, who am I talking to?"

"I am Darvin, of the Darvins. Why have you not received our transmissions before now?"

"I have been incredibly busy, Darvin, there are matters of the universe that require my full attention, I hope that this one is one that is deserving of my time?" The Darvin shifted uncomfortably as self doubt flickered between his eyes.

"Of course. I come here to talk of the shipping arrangements we were supposed to lay down in the great announcement. It has been almost a third of cycle and still no word has come through about the restrictions being lifted."

"And exactly what makes you assume they will be lifted?"

"Well... You said they would..."

"Yes. Of course I did." Jack felt the back of his hands itch like they always did under pressure, and he desperately ignored the urge to scratch them. "Well as you know, it's an unsure time for shipping, we have to make sure the proper command system is in place before we let go of the restrictions. There has to be order, and order in a universe as big as this is not an easy thing to come by, as I'm sure you know."

"Of course, I-"

"I'm sure you also know," Jack raised his voice a little, "that every other one of the shipping freelancers has the same restrictions, that are put in place _as you know _to stop any overachievers like you from getting greedy. It's a hard time for all, Mr Darvin, one group cannot start profiting more than any other yet. Your time will come when your excellent service and superior ships will be the asset to you, you so desperately want them to, but for now I suggest you stop wasting my time and do your jobs." Jack took a deep breath in and stood as tall as he could, looking the Darvin straight in his three eyes.

The Darvin seemed to contemplate for a moment before he bobbed slightly, and the screen abruptly vanished.

"Nothing like John, but I suppose you're new at this." Aeryn strode into the room and went immediately to a panel, pressed four buttons and talked to the shell, "Pilot, how far away are we from the rendezvous point?"

"We're there now, shall we dock in Thurlis?"

"No, I don't like that place, besides, too many people will recognise us. Stay here for a little while, we'll dock only when Crichton messages us to say he's there."

"Of course Officer Sun."

"Besides, I don't want to give you boys any more bars to go to." She glared Jack in the eye until he dropped his gaze, "so, who's this?"

When Hannah stared at her, frozen behind D'Argo, Jack spoke.

"This is Hannah. The girl D'Argo picked up from Asci."

"I did not _pick her up _from Asci. I recued her, she was a prisoner next to me, with the collector."

"Yes, a man we're still looking up on." She said thoughtfully, looking the girl up and down with a cold stare that meant she hadn't decided whether or not to like a person. "Where are you from?"

The girl shook her head.

"I don't know."

Aeryn frowned,

"How can you not know? What do you remember about before you were captured?" A dark light flickered behind her eyes and she shrank back a little. "Nothing? Nothing at all?" The girl shook her head and stepped back, her hands clenched together against her chest.

"I think she can't remember anything." D'Argo said softly, "cause she doesn't want to remember what happened to her down there." The girl continued to stare at Aeryn, who did not break her gaze.

"Fine, then." She said briskly, as Hannah's eyes slowly slid to the floor. "Why was she captured in the first place?"

"Ooh, I know this one! The collector said she was... special, or unique or something." Aeryn glanced at D'Argo and frowned.

"Special and unique are rarely good combinations for this crew."


End file.
